Cotton Bureau was founded as a platform for the best individual designers and illustrators to sell their work on t-shirts, but looking back, we always found ourselves teaming up with communities and personalities a little (or a lot) out of our league. From our early work with the charity Still Kickin’, through our monster post-election campaigns with Rogue NASA and Pod Save America, to our ongoing partnerships today with MKBHD and Adam Savage, we’ve hit our fair share of home runs.

But if we’re being honest, our offerings for partners like that have always been a little, shall we say…limited. Big communities need more than just t-shirt campaigns. They want to sell hats and enamel pins and coffee mugs. They want products for sale all the time, not just two weeks at a time. They need help conceiving and designing products. They want an online home for their products that looks and feels like them. Until recently, we couldn’t really help…but now we can. Introducing Cotton Bureau Plus, a white-glove merch partner for the internet’s biggest creative communities.

“Cotton Bureau has made the co-creation of a totally custom store as frictionless and enjoyable as I could possibly imagine. Their responsiveness, creativity, and willingness to work back and forth to do things right is awesome!” — Marques Brownlee, MKBHD

What is Cotton Bureau Plus?

Cotton Bureau Plus is a take-care-of-everything merch agency for demanding creators, podcasters, charities, YouTubers, gamers, and more. We do everything an in-house team would do: strategy, consulting, design, production, e-commerce, warehousing, fulfillment, customer service, you name it. We know what works and what doesn’t because we’ve been making merch for creative communities (and ourselves) since 2010. This ain’t our first rodeo.

Branded E-Commerce

You want a storefront that looks like you, but you don’t wanna build it yourself. We got you. You’ll get your very own branded home on the Cotton Bureau platform, masterfully designed to work across all devices. Give your customers a slick, clean shopping experience that lets your products shine.

Dedicated Service

Email, text, phone, Slack…we stay in touch however you’re most comfortable. And as a Cotton Bureau Plus partner, you have a line straight to CB’s founders. Depending on the availability of quality tacos in your town, we may even visit.

Customer Service & Fulfillment

Packing, shipping, and customer service is the worst part of handling merch yourself, and we make it all go away. We answer every email, print every t-shirt, and store, pack, and ship everything right here in beautiful Pittsburgh, PA.

Revenue Sharing

If you’re in this for the money, we assure you there’s real money to be made. Our most successful partners over the last two years have earned $250,000–500,000 annually.

Flexibility

We work at your pace and on your schedule. Wanna take your time and perfectly craft your first merch drop? Let’s do it. Need to get a store up by next week? We can do that too.

“I’ve been producing Savage Industries shirts with Cotton Bureau since April 2018, and it’s been a pleasure. They offer a great product and an easy partnership; there is no downside to working with them. Plus I love the shirts themselves — their finish and fit. I wear Cotton Bureau shirts all the time, and not just my own designs, either.” — Adam Savage, Mythbuster and Editor-in-Chief of Tested.com

What can I do with Cotton Bureau Plus?

If it has to do with merch, we can do it. Need a permanent storefront to sell products? A special one-time merch drop? A VIP package for an event? A rewards program for your fans? We can do—and have done—it all.

Who are some Cotton Bureau Plus partners?

YouTube’s most beloved tech reviewer, MKBHD. Your favorite Mythbuster, Adam Savage. The biggest show in gaming, The Game Awards. And more popular podcasts than we can shake a microphone at (Criminal, The West Wing Weekly, Accidental Tech Podcast, Lore, Cortex, The Solid Verbal, and many more).

What kinds of products can I produce?

Cotton Bureau is known for the highest quality t-shirts in the biz, but CB Plus allows you to sell anything you want. We’ve made hats, coffee mugs, enamel pins, posters, stickers, challenge coins, polos, and much more for our CB Plus partners. We’ve even sold and shipped custom-branded Apple AirPods. Wanna team up on something weird? Let’s do it.

What does Cotton Bureau Plus cost?

That depends on what you want to do. Get in touch and let’s talk about it. Suffice to say, CB Plus is an agency-level service for serious content creators. That don’t come cheap.

I think I have a big audience. How do I know if it’s big enough?

We’re looking for partners who don’t just have followers or listeners or subscribers; we’re looking for partners with true fans (and a lot of ‘em). Fandom is what drives serious merch sales, and serious merch sales are what you need to be a part of Cotton Bureau Plus. If you think you can sell at least 500 items per month, let’s talk.

I have a ton of fans, but I’m a terrible designer. Can you help me?

Of course. Just because you have a big audience doesn’t mean you have in-house design talent. We can design you something ourselves, or play matchmaker with one of our zillion talented friends (as you may have noticed, we’ve worked with damn near every graphic designer and illustrator on the planet).

“Working with Cotton Bureau is a pleasure. They’re always responsive and helpful, and have a great eye for good design. In fact, our podcast’s de facto logo was an unsolicited offering from the design team at Cotton Bureau; one that we immediately fell in love with. We stick with Cotton Bureau year over year because they’re the best we’ve found, by far.” — Marco Arment, co-host of Accidental Tech Podcast

Who we’re looking for

You’re a creative online community (a podcast, YouTuber, Twitch streamer, writer, cause/charity, app/game developer, influencer, etc.) with a large and loyal audience. Maybe you’ve never done merch before, you’re currently doing merch yourself and want to hand it off, or you’ve had a bad experience in the past and want to give it another shot. You have the utmost respect for your fans, followers, subscribers, or customers, and aren’t looking to simply cash in. You have a commitment to product quality, are itching to roll up your sleeves and get involved in the creation process, and can’t wait to spread the word when everything’s ready. You’re looking for a collaborative partner, not just “the t-shirt guys.”

We’re looking for a handful of new partners in 2019, and since CB is a small team, our time is limited. If this sounds like you, get in touch soon.